1. Field of the Invention
This device is designed for cooking or steeping corn in large quantities for mass production of tortillas. The device cooks corn in volume lots of 50 to 150 bushels at a uniform temperature resulting in even texture. The corn and liquid are heated by steam and stirred with air.
2. Description of Prior Art
In the early art of processing corn for production of masa corn, the cook would steep the corn in small lots of a few bushels in containers having capacity of less than 20 bushels. Masa corn volume cookers have been used with mechanical stirrers giving poor results. Various containers for related purposes have been developed and patented, such as U.S. Pat. No. to Smith, 3,345,181, for roasting and cooling coffee beans. Air has been utilized for mixing pulverized materials such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Goebels, 2,205,525, and McIver, 3,881,702.
The method and device of this invention differs from the prior art in the cooking of large quantities of corn by heating the mass of liquid and corn with injected steam and steeping and cooling the mass while periodically stirring with air. Mechanical stirrers break up and crush cooked or steeped masa corn whereas the selective stirring with the injection of air of this invention stirs, distributes heat, and evenly cools the corn producing masa of the highest quality without breakage.